Chicago

1969

Separates from Mary and remarries

Frank and Mary separate; he later marries the sculptor June Leaf and in 1971 moves to Mabou on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, dividing his time between his home there, a former fisherman’s shack on the coast, and his Bleecker Street loft in New York.

1971 · Wohnort

Mabou

1972

The book “The Lines of My Hand”

Returning to still images, he publishes his second photographic book, The Lines of My Hand, described as a “visual autobiography” of largely personal photographs. He later largely gives up “straight” photography to create narratives out of constructed images and collages, with words, multiple frames and scratched and distorted negatives, though none of this later work achieves an impact comparable to that of The Americans.

1974

Death of his daughter Andrea

His daughter Andrea is killed in a plane crash in Tikal, Guatemala. The loss shapes much of his later work, and his reputation as a recluse who declines most interviews and public appearances grows particularly after it.

c. 1974

His son Pablo’s illness

Around this time his son Pablo is first hospitalized and diagnosed with schizophrenia.